In this post-midterm election period, everyone seems to be in a sort of digestive period. Republicans are trying to analyze what they can do, and what they can’t , to welcome their new members, and particularly to reassure and caution their supporters.

The president has the initiative, and the veto. And the president doesn’t seem to grasp the meaning of the election. There is little, if any, self-analysis. What analysis there is concerns his “gift,” his ability to sway opinion, to transform attitudes and endear himself to others with his words. He is quite sure that he just didn’t explain the correctness of his policies. He really wants the economy to recover more quickly and business to start hiring, but it all just takes time, and he didn’t explain that well enough. He didn’t explain fully enough just how his policies were going to help the economy recover.

Democrats are taking it hard. A staffer for a congressional Democrat who came up short on Tuesday said that “a team of about five people stooped b their offices to talk about payroll, benefits, writing a resumé, and so forth, with staffers who are now job hunting. But one of the staffers was described as a ‘counselor’ to help with the emotional aspect of the loss — and a section in the packet each staffer was given dealt with the stages of grief (for instance, Stage One being anger, and so on).

Funny, the pundits are talking about the angry, irrational, hateful conservatives.